Tuesday, 8th February, 2000: As was the routine for the past 6-7 days, I hurriedly put on my school dress though there was sufficient time left for the auto to come and pick me up for school. Having dressed up, I quickly went to our pooja room to rub down and prepare the sandalwood paste for the day and then dashed to the dining table to have my breakfast once it was finished. Having had an ultra quick breakfast, I sprinted towards the back of my home with a dropper and a small bowl of milk.

Across my home in my neighborhood there awaited a small friend of mine. A kitten barely 2 weeks old, which has just opened its eyes and abandoned by its mother. It was born along with two of its siblings but its mother soon abandoned it after a week. I have read that in animals mothers usually abandon their first born children. Though I was unable to save the other two I was determined not to lose this one. Everyday I used to jump the boundary wall of my home with the milk and the dropper to feed the tiny kitten. This day too I was in a hurry like the days before. Some 3 days back a drumstick tree had fallen across the boundary wall and it kind of offered a foothold to climb back to my home, because of which I started taking the route which had the wall at its highest height.

With the sight of the kitten in my eyes I jumped on top of the boundary wall, but while landing my foot got caught in the branches and had a bad fall injuring my hands and legs rather badly. Hearing the noise my mother (Amma) came running, I wasn’t knocked out of my senses but felt the surrounding very hazy. The gash in my leg hurt me badly and as a result of which I had to miss my school. I rued my luck of having to miss the inter-house football final, the only junior member to be in the final. As my father leaves early for office I had to wait for him to return and take me to the doctor. The doctor advised me couple of days of rest and a minimum one week’s action off from sports. Also I was worried about missing the farewell party that we were to give our 10th class seniors the next day.

The limp in me was noticeable and along with I got earful scolding from Amma and was grounded to bed for the rest of the day. The next day I felt better and decided its better to go to school in lieu of lying down in the bed. Sneaking past Amma as always with milk, I climbed across the wall to feed the kitten. As I reached near what I saw was the stiff dead body of the cat, starved to death. I pitied myself for the helpless condition that I found myself. Tears swelled up in my eyes, thinking about what other option I could have taken in time so that it wouldn’t have met such a fate. Maybe my feeding also wouldn’t have helped it much as in such a young age no other food will be as easily digested as a mother’s milk whose indication was its somewhat large belly. Though it hurriedly sucked onto the milk that I fed, it wouldn’t have been able to derive any nourishment from it. In the days following it I cursed everyone who I felt contributed to its death, me included.

Each night the thought of it made me cry. Even today while writing this I can’t control the tears that are flowing down my cheeks. May be the death at such a young age must have made the incident non-erasable from my memory.
Perhaps history has repeated itself today too, 8th March 2008. Another kitten was lost may be dead and this time it had also lost 2 of its siblings before itself to predators but the mother cat didn’t abandon it having turned more than 3 weeks. And to protect this one my sisters used to lock it up inside the house at nights keeping it away from its mother to release it to its mother at daybreak. When I saw this I really felt bad at keeping the young away from its mother and was compelling repeatedly not to separate it from its mother as it was still in suckling stage and to think of how would it feel lying there all alone. Relenting to my repeated requests tonight they decided not to keep it under lock and key. But few hours into the night the kitten went missing. This time too because of me another kitten is lost by the time of writing, may be it will turn up dead by morning. For a night’s company of its mother I invited death for it.

That’s the value of life of an animal. And on both occasions it was not our cat, but stray ones, turned away by owners who once must have bought/brought them for their amusement or their children’s.

In a way nothing different changes in the value of life of human infants too. But more than the predators, which is non-existent, the traders of death happens to be their direct relations. Female foeticide a rampant issue is the order of the day in villages as well as cities alike. Telling more about it is like blowing trumpet near the ears of a sleeping deaf.
Everyone knows what they are doing but for them the value of life is nil when it comes in the way of self.